Could Haggling Save You Money During Your Scottish Trust Deed?

2nd October 2012

“Haggling” is defined in the dictionary as being to “bargain over the price of something” or to “argue to come to terms”. Many people in the UK are culturally averse to haggling over the prices they pay for goods and services. Indeed, Wikipedia states that, “In North America and Europe bargaining is restricted to expensive or one-of-a-kind items… and informal sales settings such as flea markets and garage sales”.

This culture may however be changing. MoneySavingExpert.com has produced a survey illustrating that active hagglers are frequently saving money at many of our best-known shops (and also with plenty of major service providers). Is there an opportunity to implement haggling tactics in order to make living on a restricted budget during a Scottish trust deed a little bit easier?

The expenditure guidelines used when setting up protected trust deeds (and also for bankruptcy or debt arrangement schemes) can include some provision for contingencies or emergencies, and also for home repairs and replacements. This is money that should be set aside each month ready for when an emergency occurs. Could you haggle to make this money go further if you need to replace your fridge, get a new microwave, buy a washing machine, or purchase the materials needed for some home repairs?

According to MSE you could. Electrical goods and white goods seem to be a major area of success for hagglers. They report that 78% of hagglers at Comet, Currys and PC World got a discount. There was even success in terms of these types of purchases at supermarkets such as Asda (60%) and Tesco (58%).

Products for DIY and home repairs also scored highly for hagglers. 78% of B&Q hagglers got a result, 69% at Homebase, and 56% at Wickes.

Even department stores appear to be open to a bit of negotiation. 63% of John Lewis and 53% of Debenhams hagglers reported that they got a discount of some type.

Whether you’re in a trust deed or not, it seems that a failure to simply “ask the question” about a discount when buying something could be an expensive error. During a Scottish trust deed being able to save money on these types of irregular (but often totally necessary) purchases could be of huge financial assistance.

How do you go about doing it? The MSE article includes a 21 point guide to haggling which is well worth a read. The key points are that a polite but assertive approach is best, and that you should always remember that the very worst thing that can happen is that they say “no”.

Have you had any haggling or discount successes that you’d like other members and readers of our trust deed forum to know about? Please share your successes in the forum.